BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 822
Page 1
SENATE THIRD READING
SB 822 (Business, Professions and Economic Development
Committee)
As Amended August 19, 2013
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :36-0
BUSINESS & PROFESSIONS 12-0APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Gordon, Bocanegra, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, |
| |Campos, Dickinson, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Eggman, Hagman, Holden, | |Calderon, Campos, |
| |Maienschein, Mullin, | |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, |
| |Skinner, Ting, Wilk | |Hall, Holden, Linder, |
| | | |Pan, Quirk, Wagner, Weber |
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SUMMARY : Makes several technical changes to provisions within
the Business and Professions Code (BPC) related to the
regulation of various professions, including those overseen by
the California Board of Accountancy (CBA), the Contractors'
State License Board (CSLB), the Board of Guide Dogs for the
Blind (BGDB), and the Board for Professional Engineers, Land
Surveyors and Geologists (BPELSG). Specifically, this bill :
1)Repeals an outdated section of the BPC requiring the Cemetery
Board and Funeral Directors and Embalmers Board to consolidate
by January 1, 1996.
2)Repeals an outdated section of the BPC that required the
Structural Pest Control Board to make certain reports and take
specific actions by January 1, 1996.
3)Makes the following changes related to the CBA:
a) Requires an out-of-state practice privilege holder to
notify the CBA of pending criminal charges in any
jurisdiction, and allows the CBA to initiate an
investigation to determine whether there is immediate
consumer harm; and,
b) Authorizes the CBA to issue citations for violations to
the BPC to out-of-state licensees practicing in California
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under practice privilege.
4)Makes the following changes related to CSLB:
a) Specifies that the term "contractor" or "consultant"
does not include a certified common interest development
(CID) manager, and clarifies that a CID manager is not
required to hold a contractor's license to perform
management services;
b) Repeals the requirement that the CSLB post a listing of
all applications approved during the previous 12 months at
its quarterly meetings, and deletes a reference to the
outdated requirement to perform "field" investigations for
a specialty license;
c) Clarifies the registrar's authority to order a licensee
to make restitution for aiding or abetting unlicensed
activity; and,
d) Provides that a license renewal applicant who submitted
an incomplete renewal application prior to his or her
license expiration date will not be required to pay the
delinquency fee, if CSLB returned the incomplete
application to the applicant for corrections, and then the
licensee resubmitted the completed and acceptable
application within 30 days of the license expiration date.
5)Makes the following changes related to the BGDB:
a) Deletes the requirement that the BGDB hold meetings at
least once a year for the purposes of administering
licensing examinations to guide dog instructor applicants;
and,
b) Deletes a reference to "seeing-eye dog" to refer only to
"guide dog."
6)Makes the following changes related to the BPELSG:
a) Establishes a retired status license for a professional
geologist or geophysicist who has been registered by the
board for a minimum of five years within California and a
minimum of 20 years within the United States;
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b) Provides that the fee for a retired registration for a
professional geologist or geophysicist shall be fixed at
not more than 50% of the license fee that is in effect on
the date of application for a retired registration; and,
c) Makes technical changes to BPC Sections 7851 and 7887,
replacing references to the term "registration" with
"license."
7)Adds language to avoid chaptering out issues with SB 152
(Roth).
8)Makes other technical and clarifying changes.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
1)This bill provides an exception to the current requirement
that a licensee renewing his or her contractor's license pay a
delinquency fee in the cases where an incomplete application
has been returned to the applicant by CSLB. Under this bill,
an applicant will not have to pay the delinquency fee if he or
she returns the application within 30 days and the applicant's
current license has not expired. CSLB estimates a potential
loss of revenue from delinquency fees in the range of $100,000
per year.
2)The remaining costs associated with this legislation are minor
and absorbable within the affected boards' budgets.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose of this bill . This bill is one of three committee
bills authored and sponsored by the Senate Business,
Professions and Economic Development Committee for the purpose
of consolidating multiple non-controversial revisions into a
single bill. As a committee bill, "if controversy or
opposition should arise regarding any provision that cannot be
resolved, then that provision will be removed from the bill.
This will eliminate the chance of placing any of the other
provisions in jeopardy." By combining the provisions related
to various regulatory programs and professions governed by the
BPC into one bill, this bill provides relief to the different
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licensing boards, bureaus, professions and other regulatory
agencies that would have to otherwise separate out each
measure.
2)Provisions related to the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau . BPC
Section 102.1 was made obsolete when AB 2888 (Consumer
Protection, Governmental Efficiency and Economic Development
Committee), Chapter 568, Statutes of 2000, consolidated the
Cemetery Board and Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers
into the current Cemetery and Funeral Bureau.
3)Provisions related to the Structural Pest Board . BPC Section
102.2 required the Structural Pest Control Board to make
certain reports during the 1995-96 Budget Year, and specified
that the specific contingencies needed to occur January 1,
1996. As this date has passed, this outdated section in no
longer relevant.
4)Provisions related to the California Board of Accountancy .
Under current law, an out-of-state licensee who exercises a
practice privilege in California is not required to notify the
CBA of any pending criminal charges, which leads to
inconsistent notifications. This bill would require such
notifications.
Beginning July 1, 2013, BPC Section 5096.2 authorizes CBA to
revoke, suspend, or fine a practice privilege holder for
specified violations, but does not authorize the CBA to issue
citations to out-of-state licensees practicing in California.
This bill would rectify that situation by permitting CBA to
cite out-of-state licenses.
5)Provisions related to the Contractors' State License Board .
According to the CSLB, "there are duplicative posting
requirements for licensure applications found under the
Contractors' State License Law in BPC 7080.5 and BPC 7065."
This bill strikes the second reference, and also removes the
outdated term "field" investigations, which consist strictly
of review of documents.
CSLB states that "without a change to BPC 7114, a restitution
order cannot be included in an accusation, even though the
underlying charge of aiding and abetting unlicensed practice
is included in the pleading for disciplinary action. As such,
restitution cannot be a condition for reinstatement of the
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license, and the consumer must try to recoup financial losses
through other means, such as a civil action."
Each month CSLB receives a number of licensee renewal
applications that are submitted with errors. These
applications cannot be processed, and must be returned to the
licensee to make corrections. In cases where licensees must
correct and resend their renewals back to CSLB, they often
miss the deadline and are charged the delinquency fee even
though they made a good-faith effort to submit the application
on time. This bill provides that an incomplete renewal
application that had originally been submitted on or before
the license expiration date may be returned within 30 days
after the license expiration date, and the delinquency fee
shall not apply.
6)Provisions related to the Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind .
According to BGDB, "In 2005, the BDGB conducted an
Occupational Analysis which created a legally defensible
examination involving subject matter experts conducting the
instructor examinations, as opposed to Board Members." For
this reason, an amendment to BPC Section 7203 is necessary for
clarification.
The term "seeing-eye dog" is trademarked by the Seeing Eye Dog
School in New Jersey, and refers to a specific type of dog
from this school. Eliminating reference to "seeing-eye dog,"
in BPC Section 7210 and using only the term "guide dog" brings
updated terminology to the Code.
7)Provisions related to the Board for Professional Engineers,
Land Surveyors and Geologists . Currently, there is no option
for a retired geologist or geophysicist to obtain a "retired"
license status after he or she is no longer practicing. Many
retirees would like the opportunity to have the choice of a
retired status, which engineers and land surveyors already
have under the Professional Engineers Act and the Professional
Land Surveyors Act.
8)Provisions related to Fictitious Business Name Statements .
According to the California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials, AB 1325 (Lara), Chapter 368, Statutes of 2012, made
a number of changes relating to fictitious business names,
including making references to "married couple" rather than to
"husband and wife." This bill would conform BPC Section
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17914, which still refers to "husband and wife" to the modern
terminology.
Analysis Prepared by : Angela Pontes / B.,P. & C.P. / (916)
319-3301
FN: 0001759